Daniil Olegovich Nikulin,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Researcher, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Adaptation of Сombatants of the First World War to the Rear Life in the Omsk Military District in 1915−1922
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-6-1
On the 110th anniversary of the First World War, the topic of the return of its veterans to the rear regions of the country is especially relevant − both during the war and after. In the course of recent geopolitical challenges, Russia resorted to limited mobilization, which happened in combination with capitalism for the first time since the First World War. The article identifies a number of situations that combatants faced upon returning from the front, as well as several variations of the attitude they faced from civilians and officials. The author concludes that combatants could find themselves in two different situations: having returned during the war and remaining in the ranks of the army, they entered service in depot regiments, where their advanced military experience was included into the program for training reinforcements. If a combatant returned after the February Revolution however, then he most likely entered service in the newly formed militia or went to work at fields in the countryside, for which evacuated veterans had preference. Some veterans took part in the political struggle. After both the First World War and the Russian Civil War, former combatants gained greater freedom of action, but they had to re-adapt to civilian life. The attitudes towards veterans were ambivalent. On the one hand, while the war was going on, the current government and entrepreneurs provided assistance to those who suffered most from the war, among whom, along with refugees, were the wounded and disabled veterans. On the other hand, the stories the veterans shared with their neighbors were inconvenient for the government, since they contradicted the official propaganda. At the same time, ordinary people listened to veterans and respected their opinion. After the war, due to its outcome and the peculiarities of the Civil War, veterans lost the appreciation of their fellows, which particularly affected the Cossacks. The Soviet government, which came to power after the Civil War, paid little attention to the veterans’ participation in the First World War, preferring to judge them according to their role in the Civil War.
Publishing: 28/12/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 19/08/2024
How to cite: Nikulin D.O. Adaptation of Сombatants of the First World War to the Rear Life in the Omsk Military District in 1915−1922 // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 6 (38), pp. 11–21.[Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-6-01.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2024
Keywords: combatants; World War I; Omsk Military District; rear; adaptation to peacetime; rehabilitation